I am an HCI Researcher at INESC-ID with an MSc. Degree in Aerospace Engineering from IST. Highly motivated by technological challenges, I designed an approach for remote virtual collaboration during my master thesis. During my exchange program in India, I have enriched my adaptability to new environments and developed great intercultural sensitivity.
Through my education in computer engineering, interaction design, media studies and architecture, I learned to recognize the need for interdisciplinary approaches to designing interactions with (and within) the built environment. My professional experience as an interaction designer in India and Germany, and as a research assistant in the U.S. (Buffalo), Canada and Portugal enable me to connect academic research to professional practice.
I’m a 4th year PhD student in ECE in the CMU-Portugal program between CMU and IST (Lisbon, Portugal), where I’m advised by Justine Sherry at CMU and João Luís Sobrinho at IST. My research interests are in the applications of theoretical computer science to computer networking, namely to problems of traffic engineering and network design.
Since my Master’s Thesis, I have been researching program synthesis, the task of constructing a computer program based on a high-level description of what it should do. I will continue to explore this topic on my PhD: through program synthesis, I hope to find ways to help everyone easily and safely use a computer to automate daily tasks.
I am a PhD candidate in Electrical and Computer Engineering, pursuing a double degree at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and Instituto Superior Técnico (IST). I am advised by Yuejie Chi (CMU) and João Xavier (IST), and co-advised by Cláudia Soares (NOVA). Prior to that, I received an MSc in Aerospace Engineering from IST in 2019. My research interests focus on provable optimization methods for efficient distributed machine learning systems. During my PhD, I have been working on efficient vertical federated learning.
Afonso Amaral leads international alliances research at the Critical Technology Initiative at Carnegie Mellon University, focusing on technology and manufacturing policy and regulation. His research specializes in advanced manufactured products, trade, innovation, and industrial mobilization strategies to address product shortages and crises. He co-develops an early warning mechanism for monitoring supply chain disruptions with the Chief Economist team at the European Commission’s DG GROW.
I graduated in Instituto Superior Técnico, where I have joined the local Capture-The-Flag (CTF) team called STT. Ever since, I have participated in many security competitions and have been dedicated to the field of computer security, first focused on cryptography and now on web analysis.
His research has been featured in top venues such as ASE, ICSE, PLDI, and TOSEM. Notably, his work on PolyglotPiranha, a refactoring tool developed with Uber’s Programming Systems Group, is used by multibillion-dollar companies.
